Happy Birthday!

I can't believe Kailin turned four today!!

I'm really hoping she had a good birthday. I let her have "tiny cookies" cereal for breakfast, then we headed off to the county fair (she liked the animals okay, but Colby fell IN LOVE with the pigs and was nearly equally enamored with the sheep and only slightly less so with the horses. The cows fell out of favor for pooping everywhere....) where our little daredevil rode the rides, squealing with joy no matter what kind it was - the wilder the better! After a cat nap in the car, she tooled around in her new Fisher Price Power Wheels Arctic Cat for a little bit, enjoyed a showing of "Letter Factory" and then was surprised with a giant bounce house (we rented it for tomorrow's birthday party) followed by the coup de gras - dinner from "the Big M supper club" and then more bouncing. She is SOUND asleep now as I write this.

I have a lot of reflections about this past year, but they're mostly the same old Mom reflections about how she's grown and all the new things she can do that she couldn't manage last year - and there are a lot of them. But mostly this year as I tucked her in and listened to her giggle insanely in her overtired state about "don't let the bed bugs bite, bite, bite" I thought about her birthparents. I always do on her birthday and on our adoption day and sometimes on holidays. I thought about how her laugh would be the same if she were living in China, but I wondered what things her birthparents would have taught her that I haven't and what I might've taught her that they wouldn't have. And maybe some things are the same. I like to hope that they'd have taught her to love and respect her family and to care for others and be thankful for all that she has. I hope they'd have been patient and kind with her (even though I don't always feel that I am). And I'm sorry for the system that means they can never know this wonderful, fiery, fiercely loyal little girl who I have the privilege and the blessing to call my daughter. They gave me such a gift on this day and for that I will always be deeply indebted to them.

Biscuit on, tootie too

Kailin's been singing a little song for about a week now. I'm not sure if she heard it somewhere or if it's an amalgamation of things she's heard or if she truly made it up. It is simple - "Biscuit on, tootie too" and it's sung as if the tootie too is a result of the Biscuit on - similar to "Fish on! Reel it in!" but much more gentle. So I'm not sure if it's "tootie two" like two tooties or if it's "tootie too" like tootie in addition to the biscuit being on. On what? I don't know. Just on. I'm not inclined to ask her about it because I'm a little afraid she'll stop singing it if I do. It's a sweet little song and I enjoy hearing it when the mood strikes her. Of course I'm just as likely to hear Jingle Bells or We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but I'll take what I can get!